Checkmate
by Tala-baby
Summary: He supposed that is what he likened it to. A game of chess. Nothing more than a waste of time. A chance to rub the futility of their actions in their faces before he destroyed them... Hao muses after his failure at the Final Battle.


**Luna:** I found myself bored and thus gravitated towards Youtube where I spent my day off watching the entire series of Shaman King. How did I do this? I skipped the episodes I did not like...aka, the ones with no Hao in them... so I suppose I did not watch the entire series XDDD

No porn in this one kiddies. Apologies, but I am rediscovering my affinity for Mankin Twincest and Yaoi, and so, I shall probably be visiting this genre again soon. I am well aware that many are pleading for Yoh's POV in the NINseries to accompany _Closer_ and _Ruiner_. I am seriously contemplating writing it, so stick around!

_---_

_'It was funny'_ Hao found himself musing, _'how things would work out just as predicted by my lesser half, though not as expected'._ The fact that 'Things would work out' was a vague concept but when spoken through smiling lips and matched by serene eyes, it would make you think that all would go to some grand plan, and Hao could not stop the bitter twist of his lips at the thought that this so called plan was not his.

The final battle had been a desperate struggle from their side of the chessboard. The reincarnated Asakura had watched with sickening satisfaction as their desperate struggles amounted to nothing. He supposed that is what he likened it to. A game of chess. Nothing more than a waste of time. A chance to rub the futility of their actions in their faces before he destroyed them.

First he took their pawns. All of those weak Shaman, those that dared oppose his Kingdom, his ideals. Traitors to the planet and molly-coddlers of the human race. Traitors like the Lily 5, The Patch, the X-laws, all who stood between him and the Great Spirits. He had taken his greatest threat of an opponent, The Iron Maiden Jeanne and burnt her to cinders with her own cruel gauntlet of justice, completely obliterated her sacred Babylon gate, and fed her God-spirit Shamash to his Fire Genie as if it were child's play. Weak.

The X-laws fell without her strength, the last of the Pawns joining the higher ranks of the chessboard. _'And Lyserg Diethel turned from Pawn to Rook, aiding the outside flanks of my brother's 'Army'._ Hao felt his lips twitch in a smirk. The boy had finally shown some semblance of power after snivelling behind the Angel's legs throughout the tournament, desperate to prove himself and yet too blinded by hatred to foresee his own failure. Hardly an admirable trait, but the effort was amusing.

The other Rook, holding the forefront position against the dark side of the board came in the form of an eccentric German Doctor, lost in feeling to his own spirit. Johann Faust VIII. _'A formidable ally and yet a weak opponent'._ He did not join this fight through any thought on his part, more out of debt and duty to the opposition's Queen for reuniting him with his lost love. A silent wraith by the name of Eliza.

_'However'_ Midnight eyes narrowed as the smirk on his lips stretched, the tiniest hint of malice in the last, soaking through the vicious smile like acid _'Yoh's defensive Castle's were not much of a threat'_ Hao could still remember the feeling of being connected with his twin. He supposed that could have been _'Check'._ An almost immediate sense of victory and yet not close enough. As he pulled the lesser soul from the mirror image body separated from him at birth, and swallowed it whole, the sensation of being stitched together from the inside as his stubborn younger sibling merged with him had been almost euphoric. Those eyes that forever held a smile, blank and bottomless, and lips constantly parted in joyous laughter drawn tightly into a thin confused line as he felt all thought and feeling melt away. The sensation of becoming whole with the half of your soul lost to you after 500 years. His smirk vanished, replaced by an angry snarl.

_'I had him. He was ready to be mine as he was before. I HAD him'_ Hao grimaced. He had almost taken their _King_, bypassing the rest of the chain of command and headed straight for the top. The Knights; Tao Ren, fearless Chinese warrior, and Usui Horokeu…well, Hao found trouble locating any particular talent there, the Bishops; that damned Elvis impersonator and the short human who claimed to be Yoh's 'friend'. Hao felt his lip curl at the thought. '_Friends. A half of my soul befriending human filth'_ He supposed it would have been foolish of him not to rid the world of that short, annoying…but then, upon further consideration, Asakura Hao was not foolish, and thus, unable to grasp being so.

_'That brings us to the last'_ Onyx eyes closed. He could picture her '_The Queen'_. All blonde hair, sharp eyes and sharper words. Her voice lacked any theatricality, sounding bland and bored at most. Quick, to the point, with a stare that put ice to shame. Kyouyama Anna. Shaman Queen. There was no other way to describe her. In some absent part of his mind he could still hear the crack of flesh as she struck him, the mild tingle of his skin. No, she could not hurt him, but that's not to say she didn't give it a damn good try.

The smirk was back, stealing salaciously across his features as his mind's eye watched her break. From cradling his_ otouto's_ head in her lap, to the look of absolute defeat on her face as her 1,080 beads fell around her like diamond dust, the long dead Asakura spirits that sealed his past reincarnation 500 years ago stolen away from her with a single swipe. The White Queen had lost hope.

_"I gave her the chance to change the board"_ His voice echoed strangely as he spoke aloud for the first time, for his benefit only. No one could hear him anyway. He could feel his features settling into a neutral look, betraying none of his thoughts, more out of habit than need. She had chosen her King long before the final fight and he had taken great pleasure in proving to her how bad a decision it had been. The Opposition was in '_Check'_, even if Asakura Hao had only one player on the board and they, many, the odds were in his favour. Until the tables turned.

The White King moved.

Hao could feel his eye twitching, a sort of mad expression of irritation as he remembered the way Asakura Yoh had simply climbed to his feet. Having half of one's soul forcefully ripped away from you was mind numbing, like ripples of pure undiluted agony. He had taken his _otouto's_ soul, but he had failed to take his spirit. The Samurai. Amidamaru. And in this oversight lay the problem. Yoh had escaped his cage and come back to finish the job.

Quickly utilising the strength of the long defeated pawns, along with the full barrage of strength presented by his backline of _'friends'_, though Hao still found it a distasteful word to stomach, the reincarnated Shaman found his dream of a Shaman only Kingdom shattered before his eyes with a single strike of the Double Medium. It was quick. Almost too quick, too clean, too perfect. The Black King fell. The Board was clear. The Humans had been allowed to survive.

_"Oh well"_ A soft, humourless chuckle reverberated around him in the empty chasm, as onyx eyes closed, _"There's always next time."_

Yes, Yoh would realise. When it came to Asakura Hao, there was no **Checkmate.**

---

**Owari.**


End file.
